Washington (D.C.)--Tidal Basin

Alan R. Havig examines the effort of the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) to secure a site on the Washington, D.C., mall to erect a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. Havig argues that it was not the grandiose design by architect John Russell Pope that doomed the proposal, but that many in and out of Congress felt that constructing a memorial to Roosevelt in the 1920s was too soon after his death. Other critics argued that Roosevelt had not yet earned a place among the memorials to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Havig notes that Roosevelt, while denied a monument in the nation’s capital, would gain a memorial on Theodore Roosevelt Island in 1967, and he would earn a place on South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore among the figures that he was deemed unworthy of joining in the 1920s. 

Four illustrations, three photographs of memorials to Roosevelt, and the logo of the Theodore Roosevelt Association populate the essay. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

John A. Gable tells the story of the creation of a national memorial to Theodore Roosevelt on an island in the Potomac River. Gable looks at the origins of the memorial idea in the 1920s, cites the efforts of the leadership of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) to secure a site, discusses the memorial built on the island, and describes the natural environment found on Theodore Roosevelt Island.

A photograph of three of Roosevelt’s children on the island, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Edith Roosevelt Derby, and Archibald B. Roosevelt, accompanies the article.

A listing of the officers of the TRA along with the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees is on the second page of the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal